you have to f*cking sleep... every freaking day...

I have issues with my sleep. It mainly concerns habitual use of technology use (see previous blog post). So lets try beating bad habits with good ones!

I would like to note that I am not a doctor or anything. This is just what I have found over a day of looking into stuff. I am by no means an authority on health or sleep.

Motivation Rituals

In Kaguya-sama: Love is War there is a sequence where Kaguya is taught to create a calmness ritual. Whenever she does something she enjoys she will put her hand to her cheek and over time she will associate the act of putting her hand on her cheek with being happy.

When I was watching and later reading Kaguya-sama I was surprised to find out that this was a real thing and I rediscovered it years later in Atomic Habits. (all roads lead to atomic habits)

So thats the plan! I will create a ritual for sleep

All habits start as a routine

So lets make a routine!

First lets analyze the behaviour we wish to invoke.

Sleep is not something you do.

Sleep is more of something that happens to you. You do not "go to sleep" because if it were that easy then there would be no issue. Instead you do certain things that make it easier for your brain to enter the sleeping state of mind.

The low level reason sleep occurs is because of the production of certain chemicals:

There are other chemicals related to sleep but I believe targeting these 3 is sufficient (maybe even overkill)

The more-er the chemical! the gooder the sleep!*

but I do think that if you are having trouble with sleep it is likely due to a deficiency in these 3 chemicals.

So lets get deeper into actions we can take to increase production in these chemicals.

Melatonin: The Hormone of Darkness

Not all light is the same!

Light can be measured in wavelengths. The shorter side of the wavelength is comprised of purples, blues and greens while the longer has yellow, oranges and reds.

In general, the longer the wavelength, the more melatonin is suppressed. Ideally you would avoid all light before bed but I think that is an unreasonable ask.

When it is night time do your best to lean towards ambient lighting that leans red. Orange is perfectly suitible.

The goal should be to minimize the amount of high energy/short wavelength light your body is exposed to.

Adenosine: Accumulating Score

I like to think of adenosine as a score counter. Every minute you are awake you earn a point and over the day these points accumulate. As these points accumulate the "game" (staying awake) gets harder and harder.

Caffiene! Power Up or Trap?

Caffiene essentially pauses the accumulation of score. You produce less adenosine and you find it easier to stay awake. So you get to play for longer.

The thing is caffiene does not halt adenosine production. It just stops it from reaching the receptor. So once the caffiene wears off all the accumulated adenosine rushes into the receptors. This is (to my understanding) what is happening on a chemical level during a caffiene crash.

So simple! Just avoid caffiene in evenings and watch your dose.

Larger dose means longer and more powerful adenosine suppression which means bigger crash

GABA: If you are stressed! have you tried not?

This is one I am the most iffy on. It's hard to find a good resource that is both simple enough for me to read and not from a website trying to hype up their overpriced supplements.

As far as I can tell the main inhibitor of GABA production is stress so reducing stress is the answer!

Reducing Stress is a matter of doing all the things you already know you should be doing.

Meditation! A good meditation to do before bed is guided progressive muscle relaxation. After you are in that state of relaxation you can optionally choose a phrase to implant into your subconsious. Manifestation yay!!

Avoid things that make you stressed (at least before bed). I'm talking anything work related. Anything social media related! Chances are if you know what is stressing you out, you know how to avoid it.

Dealing with your shit! David Allen coined the term "Open Loops" to describe anything that is taking up your attention. Sometimes an open loop can be an unprocessed emotion. Which you can process! You can learn to process your emotions! It is a skill not a talent.

Building a routine around boosting chemical production

What we have learnt is by engaging in certain behaviours and avoiding others we can increase our chances of having a good nights sleep

Finally using what we have learnt

So here is the routine I have come up with:

Resources

Sleep Stuff